Psalm 55:22 (KJV)

What does this mean?

David wrote this psalm after a close friend turned against him, and the betrayal cut deeper than any enemy's attack. In the middle of his distress he tells himself, and everyone who hears him, to hand the burden over to the Lord. The promise is that God will hold you up and carry the weight with you — the old word sustain means to hold up and support — and he will not let those who trust him be shaken loose.

What does this teach us?

God does not always lift the burden away, but he promises to hold you up under it. The verse does not say trouble will disappear; it says the person who hands their burden to God will not be shaken loose from his care.

How can we apply this?

Name the burden you are carrying — the betrayal, the debt, the diagnosis — and hand it to God in plain words, telling him you cannot carry it alone. Then let him carry it with you today, one hour at a time, instead of picking it back up every few minutes.

Related KJV passages

• “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”

  1 Peter 5:7

• “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”

  Psalm 37:25

• “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

  Matthew 11:28